There are many proven strategies that can help increase students achievement and an important one among those is setting objectives and providing feedback to students. Setting objectives is the process of establishing a direction to guide learning (Pintrich & Schunk, 2002). Setting objectives serve as a road map for students, letting them know where they are headed and why they are headed that way. In order for learning to truly occur students have to be interested in what they are learning and objectives help with that. When teachers provide a desired outcome for students through objectives they make it so that students can easily follow without getting lost or feeling anxious. This is very important because students will give up if they feel frustrated and lost. Objectives help increase student achievement because it gives students a sense that what they are learning is worthwhile. If they know that they are on the right track they will feel motivated and will remain focused. Objectives let them know what they are supposed to be learning so they can understand how far along they are in the learning process and where they may need extra help. Objectives help avoid purposeless learning journeys and this helps reassure students that there is a reason why they are being taught this topic and also helps teachers create lesson plans with a focus in mind. By setting objectives teachers earn students trust because they feel like the teacher is helping them succeed by leading them there through these directions.
Teachers need to have objectives set before each assignment in order to guide students through every step of the way. Teachers should create specific but flexible goals and allow some student choice. Goals should make sense to the students. Learning goals should be posted somewhere in the classroom so students can refer to it at all times. Objectives can be displayed on projectors and be explained to the students by the teachers before and after the assignment is done.
This website is a very useful tool to help teachers come up with objectives before each assignment or lesson:Lesson Objectives
Providing feedback is a huge way that teachers can help increase student achievement. Setting objectives help guide students to their end result but after the work is done teachers have to inform students on what they excelled in and what they could improve on for next time. Feedback should be done specific to the criterion and in a timely manner. Providing feedback is an ongoing process in which teachers communicate information to students that helps them better understand what they are to learn, what high-quality performance looks like, and what changes are necessary to improve their learning (Hattie & Timperley, 2007; Shute, 2008). Positive feedback gives students self- confidence and motivates them. Negative feedback or constructive criticism help students understand what they can improve on and therefor the next time they do something similar to this assignment they will produce higher quality work. When students excel on their assignments and get positive feedback back they learn what high quality work is and become aware that they are capable of producing it. The feedback has to relate to the objectives so they can specifically identify what they missed that was stated in the objectives. Feedback ensures that students will be able to do better the next time after they have become aware of what they would've done or enforce them to repeat what they did for this assignment again because it was excellent. Through feedback students can adjust their learning and keep trying until they achieve what is expected of them. This allows greater achievement from students.
Example: Teachers should have a wall in the classroom or online website/ blog that they can display the best students work to motivate those who did an outstanding job and deserve credit. This wall, blog, or website will also give examples of outstanding work for those who didn't meet expectation so they have a reference to help them understand what they were missing for next time.
Setting Objectives & Providing Feedback
There are many proven strategies that can help increase students achievement and an important one among those is setting objectives and providing feedback to students. Setting objectives is the process of establishing a direction to guide learning (Pintrich & Schunk, 2002). Setting objectives serve as a road map for students, letting them know where they are headed and why they are headed that way. In order for learning to truly occur students have to be interested in what they are learning and objectives help with that. When teachers provide a desired outcome for students through objectives they make it so that students can easily follow without getting lost or feeling anxious. This is very important because students will give up if they feel frustrated and lost. Objectives help increase student achievement because it gives students a sense that what they are learning is worthwhile. If they know that they are on the right track they will feel motivated and will remain focused. Objectives let them know what they are supposed to be learning so they can understand how far along they are in the learning process and where they may need extra help. Objectives help avoid purposeless learning journeys and this helps reassure students that there is a reason why they are being taught this topic and also helps teachers create lesson plans with a focus in mind. By setting objectives teachers earn students trust because they feel like the teacher is helping them succeed by leading them there through these directions.
Teachers need to have objectives set before each assignment in order to guide students through every step of the way. Teachers should create specific but flexible goals and allow some student choice. Goals should make sense to the students. Learning goals should be posted somewhere in the classroom so students can refer to it at all times. Objectives can be displayed on projectors and be explained to the students by the teachers before and after the assignment is done.
This website is a very useful tool to help teachers come up with objectives before each assignment or lesson:Lesson Objectives
Providing feedback is a huge way that teachers can help increase student achievement. Setting objectives help guide students to their end result but after the work is done teachers have to inform students on what they excelled in and what they could improve on for next time. Feedback should be done specific to the criterion and in a timely manner. Providing feedback is an ongoing process in which teachers communicate information to students that helps them better understand what they are to learn, what high-quality performance looks like, and what changes are necessary to improve their learning (Hattie & Timperley, 2007; Shute, 2008). Positive feedback gives students self- confidence and motivates them. Negative feedback or constructive criticism help students understand what they can improve on and therefor the next time they do something similar to this assignment they will produce higher quality work. When students excel on their assignments and get positive feedback back they learn what high quality work is and become aware that they are capable of producing it. The feedback has to relate to the objectives so they can specifically identify what they missed that was stated in the objectives. Feedback ensures that students will be able to do better the next time after they have become aware of what they would've done or enforce them to repeat what they did for this assignment again because it was excellent. Through feedback students can adjust their learning and keep trying until they achieve what is expected of them. This allows greater achievement from students.
Example: Teachers should have a wall in the classroom or online website/ blog that they can display the best students work to motivate those who did an outstanding job and deserve credit. This wall, blog, or website will also give examples of outstanding work for those who didn't meet expectation so they have a reference to help them understand what they were missing for next time.